Profile: Frank Cooke. Nickname: Cookie. Born: 05-10-50 Entered: Barkingside TVH 1958 till 8th September 1964  tranfered to Goldings WBTS Cairns House to spring 1967 moved to Pelham House till 10th April 1967 Restored: working as Apprentice Carpenter & Joiner London.

I am a happily married, we have a daughter who is at Kent University. We live in Letchworth Garden City, Herts. which is only 12.7 miles NW of Goldings. I still have most of my old carpentry tools given to me on leaving, they caused some problems in the early years. I now run my own Plumbing & Heating business (I work for myself) most nights I'm out in my workshop playing with my pooters and server. My other hobby is diving and have dived with sharks and dived most of the sites on the south coast, my best dive site is Whitesands Bay, Cornwall it’s only a 24m dive but its the best, the James Egan Layne, which is an old liberty ship sunk in WW ll. My deepest dive 62m to get a video shot that turned out crap in Egypt. I got to dive leader / advanced diver and got to organise dives and was responsible for 11 other divers and two 5m boats great  fun! Plus hard boat diving, my only problem I suffer from sea sickness, not very good for a sports diver.

I went back to Barnardo's Aftercare in 2001 to get my past records, they had my original Birth certificate, plus my old school records from Goldings and the records from Henry Mountain Cottage, Barkingside.  I was told I was one of the lucky ones as they did have quite a large file on me as some old boys and girls only have a few sheets of information. I had no problems with hearing the information my records contained and they did fill in a few holes that I was not aware of. I found the way the records were released was caring and helpful. If I have any complaint it is the clarity of some of the files and I am sure if a little more time was taken the old files would come out a little clearer.

My spare time is taken up doing web sites, this Goldings website being one.

From 2002 I took a seat on the National Council of Barnardo's Old Boys and Girls which meets three times a year now at Barkingside HQ so if you have an Idea that would help the old boys or girls please use one of the options below with your thoughts and I will be happy to bring it up at the next meeting.

Email: Frank
Telephone: 01462 672717  Mobile:07976 208804

Or Skype me for free:

Listed below are just some of the articles written by me, but if you use the search button at the top of the banner it will list all documents.

Our old school Motto
Goldings revisited 1997
a history of Goldings with a twist
Cartref Melys. Conway, Wales,  summer of 65
Science with a bang
Old young boys at Barkingside swimming pool
Leslie Thomas a Goldings old boy